Tag Archives | Abstract

Twigs of Teal and Red-Orange: Getting Started

By Ellen Lindner on October 23, 2023 in Uncategorized

I dyed this fabric last year and it’s one of my favorites.

I was really happy with the way I had a viable design without doing anything more to it, but HOW do you design with that? I had a false start last year and am now trying again.

These are the collection of “featured” fabrics I thought I might be able to use. I call them featured fabrics because they have high amounts of contrast in them, which will draw the viewer’s eye. When working with such fabrics, I try to put them in place early on and then fill in with less dramatic fabrics, as needed.

Next, I pulled out every fabric I thought might work. As you can see, I like these colors and found that I had quite a collection.

But, maybe it needed something unexpected. What about accents of yellow?

Hmm. Maybe.

I liked the large twig (center right) on the dull orange print. But, I didn’t like the background fabric. So, I stenciled on a couple more using paint.

These should be usable.

I had my fabric decisions (mostly) made, so it was time to start moving things around on the design wall. (The challenging, but fun, part!)

Ellen Lindner

Finishing Up the Red and Yellow Quilt

By Ellen Lindner on October 6, 2023 in Uncategorized

After finishing up the left 2/3 of my red and yellow “bean” quilt, it was time to tackle the right yellow portion. It came together pretty well. (Still in -progress below.)

During these final stages I also considered added some skinny lines, for energy. (See them pinned on at the top in the photo above?) I eventually decided against them, however, because I thought they’d attract too much attention. I wanted the other contrasts to be the attention getters. (And those bean shapes, of course.)

From early in the design phase I thought I’d probably want to applique on another couple yellow beans. (If you look back at the first post, you’ll see that I had one little piece of yellow fabric sitting on the red – near the top – as a place holder.) I auditioned that idea further near the end.

I also considered adding some red ones. That’s what the red blobs are for in the photo above. I decided I just needed one. I made it a partial bean, like the other red ones.

And then I cropped both sides. (But, I later added some of the red side back.)

Finally, I had it all put together and quilted. As you can see above, I added some more bean outlines during the quilting process. I really like using a double black line for emphasis.

Then, it was time for photography.

You can see the full finished quilt here. I’d really appreciate your thoughts about it – especially what you think about these two colors together. Yay or nay?

Ellen Lindner

Red and Yellow Abstract

By Ellen Lindner on September 26, 2023 in Uncategorized

Historically, I haven’t been a fan of red and yellow combinations, but for some reason, I now find myself drawn to them. I still think they’re a little jarring, but it seems that I now like that. As evidence, I recently dyed fabrics with these colors.

I created a variety, hoping I could use them together. As you an see, I repeated a bean shape in several colors. I was happy with how they worked together and was anxious to get started.

I realized some of the lightest fabrics wouldn’t fit well into the mix. But, I had some other fabrics I thought I could use. I pinned everything together on the design wall. And I loosely arranged them: a good starting point.

Knowing the contrast of red and yellow, as well as the contrast of different values, would attract attention, I placed them (above) in approximately “sweet spots.” These are considered ideal locations for focal points. They’re easy to identify: picture a tic-tac-toe game overlaying the overall shape. Where the lines cross are sweet spots.

I immediately thought the red fabric with yellow beans was a little too “regular.” (See above) That is, the beans were spaced too evenly. I thought the composition would be stronger if they were “messed up” a little bit. So, in the photo below, you can see that I sliced right through the red bean fabric, and scooted things out of alignment. Better, I thought.

Next, came A LOT of auditioning as I folded, rearranged, cut (only once I was sure,) and pieced.

It was like a giant game of Tetris. Eventually, I had the left portion pieced and began to work on the yellow fabrics on the right.

It all went more slowly that I would have liked, but I was definitely having fun!

More next time.

Ellen Lindner

“Seeking the Horizon” Complete

By Ellen Lindner on May 21, 2023 in Uncategorized

I finished up my little (18 x 18) scrap quilt and I’m pretty happy with it. I’m calling it Seeking the Horizon.

Detail shot.

All the fabrics are dyed and printed by me. I think they have a lot of impact together!

Ellen Lindner
P.S. If you read about my quilting problems in the previous post, you can see that I improved upon it.
P.P.S. I made this for an exhibit called “Reflections.” It sorta has that quality, doesn’t it?

Working with Scraps

By Ellen Lindner on May 17, 2023 in Uncategorized

I had some interesting scraps left over from Waiting for the Lightnin’ Bugs.

Working with Scraps. Ellen Lindner, AdventureQuilter.com/blog

As you can see, they included many skinny triangles, so I knew that would drive my design. And, because they were so skinny, I knew I’d use a collage technique, rather than piecing them.

After creating a background, I started with the brightest shapes, placing them off-center.

Working with Scraps. Ellen Lindner, AdventureQuilter.com/blog

More trial and error.

Working with Scraps. Ellen Lindner, AdventureQuilter.com/blog

It was taking shape. But, when I started quilting it I had a terrible time with the concentric circles I wanted to use. I’m just not good with parallel curves!

Working with Scraps. Ellen Lindner, AdventureQuilter.com/blog

Deep breaths.

Much of the above was picked out. After drawing the desired lines I redid a lot of it and it looked much better. Thank goodness!

Ellen Lindner

“Waiting for the Lightnin’ Bugs” Complete

By Ellen Lindner on April 27, 2023 in Uncategorized

My latest quilt is complete! As you can see, I decided to square off the edges.
These colors are true. My earlier ones were shot in the studio. This one got proper lighting.

Waiting for the Lightnin’ Bugs

The dark colors of the quilt, combined with yellow streaks, reminded me of a cool evening, in VA, watching the lightnin’ bugs as they came out. (Yes, I pronounce it like that. I’m from the south!)

Here’s a detail shot

And another. All fabrics were dyed by me.

I’m kinda loving this.

Check out the web page for a larger image, another detail shot, and purchase information.

Ellen Lindner

My Version of Muted

By Ellen Lindner on April 13, 2023 in Uncategorized

Possible duplicate post

When putting away hand dyed fabrics, I noticed that my least favorites, the dark muted pieces, actually looked pretty good together. I decided to make a quilt with them, and to include a few accents of lighter colors. I was headed for a quilting retreat, so I packed up my potential fabrics to see what I could come up with.

First, I wanted to get the color palette right. I threw all possibilities up on my portable design wall and easel combo.

Not bad, but I could see that some of these colors would need to be used in smaller amounts. See the next photo for modifications. Note that I scaled back a few of the brightest colors. (Ignore the blue tape.)

I spent quite a bit of time getting happy with the palette. Then, I started joining fabrics in pairs. Next, I altered each pair in some way. Maybe I added a skinny line, a skewed alignment, or a curved seam. I call this process”slicing and dicing.”

I continued adding alterations, trying to make each unit interesting. Other than making sure I mixed up the colors well, I didn’t think about composition, shapes, or joining. Once I was home, I assembled units into larger sections.

Finally, it was time to think about composition, size, and shape. I spread out units to see what I had. I was happy with the level of energy and interest, but I didn’t want a horizontal quilt. I knew I’d need to make additional units for the top and bottom, and to fill in some other places. No more random “slicing and dicing.” I was now designing “with intent.”

Watch for my progress in the next post.

Ellen Lindner

“Petal Drop” Complete

By Ellen Lindner on April 10, 2023 in Uncategorized

Here it is, Petal Drop. If you’ve been following along, you know it started as part of a quilted (but not faced) quilt.

After lots of slicing rearranging and stitching, this is what I ended up with.

I stitched the sections back together with a loose zigzag.

And used the same stitching on the edge.

The statement:
My neighbor’s tulip magnolia blooms profusely every spring. But, after a few weeks the petals begin to fall. Very soon, the ground is just as pink as the tree. It’s a lovely transition.

This piece is for sale. See more info.

Ellen Lindner

Cutting Up Again

By Ellen Lindner on March 29, 2023 in Uncategorized

Once again, I decided to cut something up. This is where I started, with an already quilted quilt.

I liked it, but realized I liked the left side better than the right.

So, after some folding and auditioning, I cut this quilt into two pieces. I set the left portion aside.

And started work on the right portion.

My plan was to slice into it diagonally and then join the two portions back together, using a loose satin stitch. I was surprised by how easily this technique worked. Even on curved shapes! I added some skinny stripes and continued slicing and reassembling until I got something along these lines.

It definitely had more energy! I sliced into it some more.

It was obvious that the overall shape would not be rectangular. I began to think about what those edges should look like. Should I make them even more irregular? To audition this idea I used pieces of muslin to obscure and reshape the edges in places.

Yes! I was liking the spiky nature of these edges. I decided to pick out some stitching and cut new nooks and crannies.

I had to use my sharpest tools to slice away the loose zigzag without cutting the fabric.

I wasn’t sure how to finish the edges, but I decided to try the same loose zigzag I’d been using for joining, and I liked it.

In the next post I’ll show you the finished quilt. I like it.

Ellen Lindner

I Ruined It

By Ellen Lindner on March 28, 2023 in Uncategorized

If you’ve been following me for a while you know that I’ve occasionally cut up quilts and rearranged them. So, when I decided this quilt needed some revision, I decided to give it a go.

The starting quilt, Beet Salad. Certainly not terrible, but it wasn’t exciting me either.

Beet Salad

Usually, when I cut something up I do it with great intention. I aim for diagonal cuts that will show off the best parts of the quilt. This time, however, I cut it up into approximately 5″ squares. That’s probably where I went wrong.

This photo shows an early rearrangement. It doesn’t look that different, right?

Soon, I decided to use only the pieces that had two colors. This is what I came up as my piecing plan.

I wasn’t sure that it was better, but it did have more energy and I planned to add applique here and there. But then I got confused as I was piecing and created something different.

It was really too hideous for me to even take a photo. But, above you can probably tell that I added a border using those singe color pieces. And I stitched over it with a lot of black thread. It was all UGLY!

I briefly entertained the idea of trying to improve it. Which is the only reason I took the photo above. In it I was auditioning some lighter versions of pink and purple. Ugh! By now I had lost my interest in this experiment and was a little bit mad at the result. I didn’t want it hanging around any more and decided to toss it. (Actually, I saved it just for free motion quilting practice.)

Oh well, on to the next project.

Have you ever cut anything up?

Actually, I did it again, recently. I’ll show you that soon.

Ellen Lindner

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Tag Archives | Abstract

Twigs of Teal and Red-Orange: Getting Started

Finishing Up the Red and Yellow Quilt

Red and Yellow Abstract

“Seeking the Horizon” Complete

Working with Scraps

“Waiting for the Lightnin’ Bugs” Complete

My Version of Muted

“Petal Drop” Complete

Cutting Up Again

I Ruined It

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